Obscure Or Obvious?

[debka_notion]

Do you know what a doppelganger is? More accurately, how troubled should I be that many of my rabbinical school classmates a. don't know what a doppelganger is, and b. try to spell it as two words?

Just a thought from the insane place in my mind that is me trying to avoid exams...

Comments

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

There are indeed hefty political implications, as you say. I think it was only relatively recently that Taiwan adopted pinyin, given that it's a system invented by (?) or at least heavily endorsed by the PRC Communist government.

As far as I know, there aren't really any political implications behind Hepburn vs Kunrei... it's more of a linguistic and cultural thing. Hepburn is much better from an English speaker's point of view, as spellings like chi, tsu, and shi much better indicate to an English speaker how these sounds should be pronounced than ti, tu, and si. Kunrei, on the other hand, is preferred from the Japanese point of view, as it more cleanly follows the kana system, spelling out ta chi tsu te to (in Hepburn) as ta ti tu te to, without acknowledging, understanding, or caring one whit how counter-intuitive that is for anyone native to a Romance/Germanic language.